I strongly encourage you to oppose the so-called Universal Background Checks (UBC) for gun
purchasers. On any level, this is a bad idea. I will not achieve its stated objectives and will bring into play
many serious abuses against US Civil Liberties. In discussion of the UBC please consider the following:

1) We already have a universal background checking system in place: the NICS. All personal
information is reported through NICS and approve by checking existing Federal Criminal databases. The
vast majority of guns sold in this country are ran through NICS. The system, like all govt programs, functions
poorly and has blocked 10000s of legitimate buyers of firearms; good people denied their rights. Moreover
this system itself is an invasion of individual privacy and, contrary to federal law, the provided information has
been integrated into illegal databases by the ATF. Meanwhile violent criminals do whatever they’ve always
done: stealing or obtaining their guns through illegal sources. UBC will not affect criminals just as the current
system generally does not.

2) The real intent of UBC is to track, control, limit, ration, outlaw many varieties of guns, and
ultimately confiscate personally held firearms. Even if that’s not the intention of your Congress, those
that follow you can easily change this. Private gun transfers should remain legal and untracked by any govt
entity since doing so does not decrease crime. And yet proponents know UBC cannot work without creating a
National Firearms Registry. They will demand national gun registration with attached felonies for non-
compliance as they seek to identify, track, and eliminate personal firearms. With this system in place,
politicians can “call in” whatever guns, through current political expediency, are determined to be “evil.” In
this expanded UBC system criminals, of course, will be unaffected. Bad guys can illegally manufacture
dangerous devices anytime they want irregardless of law.